1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to apparatus for use in a security system. Illustrative embodiments of the invention relate to a security system comprising video cameras, the apparatus and monitors for displaying images received by the cameras.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Security CCTV systems are now finding widespread use in monitoring shopping centres, town centres, and commercial and industrial buildings.
The size of these systems may vary from one or two video sources for small retail outlets, petrol stations etc., to large town centre installations which may have greater than a hundred video sources with hundreds of alarm input signals.
In large installations, a great deal of security information is provided to the operators for evaluation. Such large security systems are typically managed by a system controller which can: provide access to a large number of video sources (for example a hundred video screens) and many hundreds of alarm signals; allow control of pan and tilt heads for each camera; provide some control panels (e.g. ten or fewer control panels) for enabling an operator to interact with the system; and present video information on some (e.g. 30 or more) video monitors.
Managing this information to ensure that any incident may be efficiently and effectively identified, dealt with and recorded for evidential purposes can be very operator intensive.
To improve the efficiency of the monitoring process, large security sites are often partitioned or broken down into areas, with one operator assigned responsibility for monitoring each area.
System controllers may provide the facilities to effectively partition an installation into a number, (e.g. eight) of fully functioning sub-systems. Each sub-system has a control interface, a number of video monitors, and access to a sub-set of the video sources and alarm information from the complete installation.
The monitors are watched by operators who use the control panels, e.g. in response to alarms, to control the views presented by the cameras in order to determine the cause of an alarm. Even by assigning one operator to each partition of an installation, an event may trigger many alarms and present the operator with an overwhelming amount of alarm and video information.
Even with partitioning of a site into areas and the assignment of one operator to each area, an operator may still have many cameras providing many different views of the area for which he is responsible.
In the event of an emergency, such as an unauthorised intruder, the operator may be faced with too many views of his area and many choices for changing and/or limiting the views to efficiently follow the intruder.
According to the present invention there is provided apparatus for use in a security system, the security system having a plurality of cameras presenting different views, the apparatus being programmable to present, on a display means, a predetermined hierarchy of predetermined sets of views, each set comprising one or more views presented simultaneously on the display means, the hierarchy having a plurality of levels, each level comprising a said set, a set in one level being linked to a predetermined set in an adjacent level.
Thus the invention provides a hierarchy of preset views and/or combinations of views. Because a set in one level is linked to a preset set in the next level, the operator is provided with simple choices when changing from one level in the hierarchy to the next.
In a practical embodiment of the invention, used for surveillance of an area such as a town centre or building, the hierarchy of views and the combinations of views in each level of the hierarchy are related to the layout of the area and routes available in the area between exit points and entrance points.